Why the Rush to Create Dubious New Sexual Disorders?

The seven published critiques to Blanchard et al.’s (2009) study justifying “hebephilia” as a mental disorder identified numerous scientific flaws.1 These flaws demonstrate the scientifically suspect nature of the construct. My critique (Franklin, 2009) also addressed the broader implications of creating a formal psychiatric disorder that will be used to justify the civil commitment of sex offenders. In his latest salvo in this debate, Blanchard (2010) sidesteps any engagement with the substantive arguments, instead presenting a misshapen little straw man that he then easily demolishes through smoke-and-mirrors statistical machinations.

In Franklin (2009), I mentioned that heterosexual men’s sexual attraction to pubescent girls was “evolutionarily adaptive.” As Blanchard (2010) rightly notes, that term refers to adaptations that enable a species to better survive across time. Scientists regard heterosexual men’s preference for younger female partners as one potential reproductive...

References

Blanchard, R. (2010). The fertility of hebephiles and the adaptationist argument against including hebephilia in DSM-5 [Letter to the Editor]. Archives of Sexual Behavior. doi:10.1007/s10508-010-9610-7.